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Young Farmer Fencing Competition

By Mrs Sarah Foley-Smith | Posted: Wednesday March 7, 2018

This was a good lesson in reading the fine print prior to entering!! The class had great wire skills - knots, crimps and tensioning but on reading the chainsaw work, post digging and stay requirements there were dark thoughts heading Mrs F-S’S way. Fortunately, we had Al Johnson and ex-student Cody Clarke-Wills from Al Johnson Farming Solutions come to the rescue. The completion of the practice component of their chainsaw course, was a crash course in stay assembles followed by 6 days of madness. Al, Cody and Ed Body were amazing giving up their valuable time in many visits to the school last week, lending tools, creating a plan and generally being awesome. The result certainly reflects their expertise and faith in us.

The day of the A & P Show dawned and Mrs F-S’s reassurances that 'we would be out the back and no one would see us so you’ll be fine' quickly came crashing down as the teams found themselves in prime position beside the car park. There was no hiding! And we didn’t disgrace ourselves. This competition is open to all Young Farmer members under the age of 31 so at 15 & 16 Years, we were the youngest competitors ever to enter. And we did OK. The boys had a plan and stuck to it. They worked away and got the hard work done early and then focused on the wire work, leaving time to check quality and tidy up.

All teams finished feeling proud that they had worked well as a team and completed a good looking fence.